Retrieval of information from the internet via a wireless device is an emerging technology that will be soon be available or cellular phones using Cellular Digital Packet Data or CDPD. There is a de,sire to port some of this same technology to personal digital assistants and other wireless devices. A mobile user may want to access personal and updated information with the convenience of a low cost pager-sized device that uses store-and-forward technology rather than a cellular phone using real time transmissions. The information may exist on the world wide web, but a browser is not convenient, or the information may exist on proprietary information networks, and a modem is not Convenient or the memory or processing required at the wireless device would raise the cost of the wireless device. Thus, there exists a need for a low cost pager-like device that can request the services of a server to dispatch an agent to obtain information for the pager-like device and return the information in store-and-forward system that takes advantage of low cost non-real time transmissions.